(Minghui.org) A woman in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia stood trial on September 8, 2025 for her faith in Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline that has been persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party since 1999. She testified in her own defense and demanded an acquittal.
Ms. Wang Fenghua, 55, was arrested on the evening of June 20, 2025, by officers from the Yuanbaoshan District Police Department and Yunshan Road Police Station. She was held at the Yuanbaoshan District Detention Center. The Yuanbaoshan District Procuratorate approved her arrest on July 1 and moved her case to the Yuanbaoshan District Court on August 8. When her family contacted the Procuratorate for her case status on August 4, the assistant prosecutor, Zhang Xiwen, lied to them and said that they hadn’t received the case from the police yet.
For seeking Ms. Wang’s release and filing complaints with various government agencies, her daughter, Ms. Wang Xuemei, was arrested on July 25, 2025 and held for ten days at the Pingzhuang Detention Center.
Judge Liu Huiyang demanded to see written requests with photocopies of IDs and proof of family relationship with Ms. Wang Fenghua when her loved ones asked to attend the trial on September 8, 2025. Only six family members were approved and all others’ requests were rejected. Those who weren’t allowed to attend the hearing were closely monitored by the police when they waited outside the court. Ms. Meng Qingling and Ms. Bai Shengzhen, two local Falun Gong practitioners who came to show their support for Ms. Wang, were arrested.
The family members who entered the court were subjected to strict security checks. They weren’t allowed to bring their cell phones, watches, or jewelry into the courtroom. The piece of paper written with the timing, location, and collegial panel members that Ms. Wang’s brother Mr. Wang Guoxiang had on his person was confiscated. Over 20 bailiffs were in the courtroom.
After the hearing started at 9:20 a.m., Ms. Wang recounted how she became much more considerate and had hope in life again after practicing Falun Gong. Her almost broken family was whole again. She felt compelled to raise awareness about the persecution and debunk the demonizing propaganda that the communist regime had spread about Falun Gong.
Her daughter also entered a not guilty plea for her as her family defender. The younger Ms. Wang said that the prosecutor failed to produce evidence to show how her mother had “undermined law enforcement with a cult organization,” a standard pretext used to charge Falun Gong practitioners in China. No Chinese law criminalizes Falun Gong or labels it as a cult. In addition, the Chinese National Press and Publication Administration had revoked the ban on Falun Gong books in 2011.
Ms. Wang Fenghua’s brother Mr. Wang was removed from the courtroom during the hearing and taken to the Pingzhuang Police Station for an interrogation by Fan Donghao and other agents from the Yuanbaoshan District Political Security Office. He was detained for five days.
Prior to Ms. Wang’s latest arrest, she was sentenced to seven years in 2012 by the Yuanbaoshan District Court. She was brutally tortured while serving time at the Inner Mongolia Women’s Prison. The police continued to harass her on a regular basis after she was released.
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